Running a catering business is a lot of hard work. From finding reliable clients to traveling all across the country to deliver your services, the tasks are pretty much endless. This is particularly true during these current economic times, where hotels, bars, cruise ships, and the like are being more careful with their money.
However, there’s good news: it’s more than possible to improve your catering business. All you need to do is use the following tips and advice!
Invest in Cooling Equipment
How you store your food and drink will ultimately make or break your catering business. If you’re lazy when it comes to storage, it will ultimately impact the quality of your food – and not in a good way.
Therefore, you need to invest in high-quality cooling equipment, from freezers to catering fridges. Catering fridges are particularly important in the summer months, because you will need to display your food to the customers and clients whilst keeping it chilled at the same time!
If any of your existing equipment is faulty or broken, make sure to use commercial fridge repair.
Have a Variety of Food and Drink
Generally, it’s not a good idea to limit yourself too much with the food you offer. Instead, to appeal to a large number of casual clients, you should increase the variety of food you offer.
From sandwiches to fish dishes, your menu should be enticing to the average person.
Hire College Students for Events
When hosting your catering events, it’s a good idea to hire college students. These are the types of people who are actively looking for extra income and will jump at the opportunity to earn it.
Remember to provide younger people with any training they might need while having a strict (but easy-to-follow) dress code. For example, many catering businesses instruct their waiting staff to wear all black and then provide them with name tags when they arrive at the event.
Offer Video Meetings
Every catering business is different. Some deal exclusively with small clients, such as local pubs, while others deal with large ones, like national hotel chains.
Whatever type of clients you deal with, it’s important to provide the option for video meetings.
What this means is that you hold consultations via video call. This saves you the time and effort of having to drive to clients (and vice-versa). Plus, you’ll be able to close deals much faster.
There are no limitations to virtual consultations, as you can provide clients with all the information and imagery that they need. From pricing to exclusive offers, everything can be discussed.
Referral Offers
Building a healthy client base is difficult in the catering industry. This is why you should incentivize your existing clients by having referral offers available to them.
For example, anyone who refers you to a new client will receive a discount on future events that they hold.
Conclusion
When put into action, these tips will really help boost your catering business over the coming months and years. Make sure to be patient and give them time to work – it won’t take long for your profits to start going up.